Have a look at the Women's 23-39 2000m race at day 2 of the 2024 World Rowing Indoor Championships presented by Concept2.
What a race in the women's 23-39 2000m! Kathryn Mole of Great Britain led out, before being caught by Pavlína Flamíková of Czechia and then Anna Šantrůčková. In Australia, Gabriela Morton was also in the mix. With 300m to go the three leaders were on similar splits and sprinting for the finish as Morton faded. But the two Czechs had a bit more in the tank and Flamíková took the win in 6:47.6, followed by Šantrůčková in 6:49.4 and Mole taking bronze in 6:50.5.
What a race in the women's 23-39 2000m! Kathryn Mole of Great Britain led out, before being caught by Pavlína Flamíková of Czechia and then Anna Šantrůčková. In Australia, Gabriela Morton was also in the mix. With 300m to go the three leaders were on similar splits and sprinting for the finish as Morton faded. But the two Czechs had a bit more in the tank and Flamíková took the win in 6:47.6, followed by Šantrůčková in 6:49.4 and Mole taking bronze in 6:50.5.
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00:00 world view here and we'll see what happens in Czechia with the huge expanse of athletes
00:08 from Czechia, Prague and surrounding in the O2 Universum.
00:13 So we'll have to see what happens as they start this race with a bit of a sprint, trying
00:19 to establish leadership early on in this competition.
00:23 You can see them all next to one another just trying to outpull each other and running on
00:27 adrenaline really for the first 10 strokes, aren't they?
00:31 Yeah, they really are.
00:33 It's that free speed, you know, it's that energy system where you get about seven seconds
00:38 before you start to move into anaerobic or aerobic kind of energy production.
00:43 Katie Moll at the top there for GB.
00:47 She has had a great season so far, as we've already mentioned, at the GB trials, but she's
00:53 here 200 metres in atop the leaderboard.
00:56 But she is going up against, like we've said, some quite seasoned athletes on the international
01:00 stage, those that have competed at Olympic and World Championships for their country
01:05 on water.
01:06 But like we've seen, you know, across all the different events, whether that be the
01:10 Versa, whether that be the 500 metres, experience on water does not necessarily mean experience
01:16 here on the indoor rower.
01:18 And so, again, a real opportunity to open the door here to some new names and faces
01:23 and new names and faces, new locations, a little sneak peek into the homes and gyms
01:30 of those around the world coming to you live from the pitches now.
01:34 Sene Yilmaz, as we've called out in the centre left of your picture.
01:39 Plamikova there for Czechia, coming into silver medal position at the moment, sandwiched in
01:45 between the Brit and the Aussie.
01:48 But she now will move into gold medal position there in the arena.
01:52 And I think to be in with a chance of a medal here, Natasha, it seems you need to be around
01:57 about the sub-seven mark because we're at 144s, 145s.
02:01 That seems to be the sort of benchmark here for a podium placing.
02:07 That definitely seems to be the time to beat.
02:09 And you have to remember that every stroke counts, every 500 metres counts.
02:13 We've already seen maybe five or six lead changes in the first six, 700 metres of this
02:19 race.
02:20 And we expect that to continue.
02:22 No one wants to be coming from behind.
02:24 Everyone wants to be coming from in front.
02:26 So we might see Katie Mould move up once again.
02:30 But the atmosphere may be doing something with Plamikova from Czechia, holding steady
02:37 at that 144, very sustainable, 34-35 stroke rate, a little bit higher than Katie Mould
02:44 in second, around a 33-34, but both holding a sub-seven minute time.
02:51 So that's definitely going to be the matchup to watch at the top.
02:54 Not too far behind, though, is Anna Sanchkova with a 143 split at the moment.
03:01 She's brought it up a little bit, but still nice and consistent.
03:04 Two metres back from Katie Mould, Gabriella Morton, who I think we just saw on screen
03:10 from Australia.
03:11 She is only eight metres back, so three metres back from third place.
03:15 I would say the podium is well within grasp for our top maybe five, six athletes here.
03:22 Yeah, definitely.
03:24 There's really not much separating them at all.
03:28 And a real charge being wound up here for the final sprint.
03:32 I think anything within 20 metres is absolutely attainable here by any of these athletes.
03:38 And they're all so experienced, they'll be rowing within their race plan.
03:41 They won't be caused to drift by the plans of others.
03:45 Katie Mould poised there six metres back alongside Anna Sanchkova, who was sixth at the under-23
03:52 World Championships last year in the single scull, a difficult discipline to be out there
03:57 all by yourself.
03:58 So she's got it certainly both physically and mentally to succeed.
04:03 We've also talked about the performance here from Pavlina Flamikova of Czechia.
04:09 She snuck in on a qualification spot to the Paris Olympic Games this year as part of the
04:15 women's pair.
04:16 And let's see if she can continue that late sprinting form to hang on to a gold medal
04:21 here in Prague on home ground.
04:24 But some really nice long strokes there being taken by Lenka Luksova we just saw on screen.
04:30 There is our current silver medalist Anna Sanchkova.
04:34 And hey, Natasha, I said that we'd love to see some Czechia medals here.
04:39 It's looking more and more likely with every single stroke that's being taken.
04:44 It really is.
04:45 Even if you go further down the line, we see Mikhaila Popsilova.
04:49 She was down at around 10th and now she's moving up with a little bit of a sprint happening
04:55 around the 1000 meter marker.
04:58 But we can see our current leader taking the rate up around 36 strokes per minute, Pavlina
05:04 Flamikova doing quite well here, looking long and strong.
05:09 And then next to her Anna Sanchkova with that marker, number 11.
05:15 She's still holding on only within six meters.
05:17 They do have 500 meters left and it's really going to be this sprint.
05:22 Let's see if they take the rate up, take the power up a little bit.
05:25 That's going to take them through to the end.
05:27 This is fifth position, Radka Novnikova.
05:32 And she is within about 20 meters of the lead, but she's looking to stay ahead of Patricia
05:38 Batista from Portugal.
05:40 She can see her slowly creeping in.
05:42 So she's trying to keep that fifth place above sixth place.
05:45 But with 400 meters to go, there's a bit of a lead forming for Flamikova.
05:50 She's seven meters ahead of Sanchikova now, but a huge battle for second right now.
05:56 Yeah, definitely.
05:57 Let's keep our eyes on the silver medal battle.
05:59 You mentioned Radka Novnikova.
06:01 That's actually Pavlina Flamikova's pairs partner down there, who she jointly qualified
06:06 that boat for the Olympics with, but she's off the podium at the moment.
06:09 I've been keeping my eyes on Sanchikova, who's down at 142s, 141s, but here goes Flamikova.
06:16 She's now at 139s with 250 meters to go.
06:19 She only continues to push those splits down.
06:22 She's at 42 strokes a minute now.
06:24 She's trying to increase that gap, get herself out of the fight for silver and into the fight
06:29 for gold.
06:30 And Sanchikova left flailing with Katherine Moll, Katie Moll now down at 140s.
06:37 I think to be in with a chance of a medal here in this final 200 meters, you need to
06:41 be at a minimum split of 140, if not 139.
06:46 Here goes Flamikova, 137.
06:49 She's up at 45 strokes a minute.
06:51 Great scenes from the stadium.
06:53 And you can just see how much that rating is pushing her onwards.
06:57 Half strokes for her to come in towards the line and to secure that gold medal.
07:02 A brilliant performance from Flamikova.
07:04 That's how much it means to her on home ground.
07:07 That was a stunning race from start to finish, timed to perfection alongside her teammate
07:13 Anna Sanchikova.
07:14 It's a one-two for Czechia alongside the Brit Katie Moll, who spoils the party for the Czech
07:21 team there.
07:22 Gabriela Morton of Oz was very consistently up there in the fight for a medal, but fell
07:27 away at the final moments.
07:29 And Radka Novotnikova of Czechia in a time of 6.55 rounds off that top five.
07:35 [BLANK_AUDIO]